A Capable Falcon Hides His Talons
by Yamino Majo
Summary: AU, set in the same continuity as A DoubleEdged Sword Cuts Both Ways: With Emperor Seien off on another one of his trips, Ran Shuuei's life has become a great deal more relaxing. Or at least it would have, if not for a certain imperial prince...


Title: A Capable Falcon Hides His Talons  
Pairing: none  
Rating: G (So squeaky clean it hurts)  
Summary: With Emperor Seien off on another one of his trips, Ran Shuuei's life has become a great deal more relaxing. Or at least it _would_ have, if not for a certain imperial prince...

Notes - Please read:

This is the second (see note below) fic in the Emperor Seien AU that I am working on with Thea-san and takes place in the same continuity as "A Double-Edged Sword Cuts Both Ways". Eternal gratitude and endless shinies to Thea-san and SubsidingLeaf for beta-reading/editing to make this writage even remotely readable!

The Emperor Seien AU fic now has a semi-official title of 'O Si Sic Omnia', yes, we know it's strange to have a latin title, but it's in line with writing english fic about a japanese novel set in pseudo-China.

Saying this is the 'second' fic is somewhat inaccurate: It is neither the second fic in the AU that we've written, nor second in the timeline. It's merely the one that was closest to completion and was polished and finished second (following Double Edged Sword). In general terms this is more like chapter 15. We expect there to be confusion, but hope that it will be assuaged with future fics. A timeline is in the works!

As usual, comments and crits welcomed!

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The tea was hot and fragrant against his tongue as he took a sip, and coupled with the first splashes of pink and white on the skeletal trees outside his office window, perfected the scene of the crisp spring day.

Ran Shuuei sat back in his chair and debated taking up his brush again. The breeze coming through the window was cool and the sun was still bright, and the urge to take a walk in the palace gardens was overcoming his urge to continue his report on the latest batch of candidates for promotion to field marshals.

It really was no contest. The work could wait, he decided. After all, it was a beautiful day, and since the most esteemed Emperor Seien was away, it could be considered vacation on top of that. Maybe he would go to the Department of Civil Affairs and see if he could convince Kouyuu to join him.

Before he could carry out his plan, a rustle at the door alerted him to the presence of a visitor. He straightened in his chair, and then promptly stood when he saw who it was.

"Shou Taishi," he said, bowing respectfully at the grand advisor. "You honor me with your visit."

"General Ran," Shou Taishi responded with a slight inclination of his head. "I would trouble you for a moment, if I may."

"Of course," Shuuei gestured for the advisor to sit, and called a servant for more tea.

When Shou Taishi was properly settled, he gave the young man a wrinkled smile and asked, "Would you happen to know where His Majesty is right now?"

"I am afraid not, Shou Taishi," Shuuei answered, and while it was not the whole truth, it was not precisely a lie. "Is there an urgent matter needing His Majesty's attention?"

"Ah, no." Shou Taishi sighed after giving him a sidelong glance. Shuuei had the feeling that the old fox could see right through him. "I was merely a bit concerned when I couldn't locate either Seien-sama or Ryuuki-sama this morning."

"Ah," Shuuei was perfectly non-committal. "I would imagine Ryuuki-sama is still on the palace grounds. He has promised to remain, after all, as part of your arrangement with His Majesty."

"I suppose so," Shou Taishi agreed, and that was that.

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Due to Shou Taishi's visit, Shuuei was not at all surprised when Ryuuki dragged himself in hours later, looking positively miserable.

"Shuuuueeiii," the youngest son of the royal family sounded just as miserable as he looked, and Shuuei had to admit that he felt a twinge of sympathy for the prince. "Where did aniue go?"

"He said he had something to take care of," Shuuei said vaguely. Sympathy or not, he had learned his lesson from the last time he had accidentally let slip where Seien was going. After a very harrowing week during which both Seien _and_ Ryuuki were missing and Shou Taishi was nearly climbing up the walls with worry (_that_ had been funny, at least), they had returned and Shuuei found himself assigned the most boring, tedious tasks possible for a General of the Uringun. He had been filling out personnel update requests for _weeks_. And from the chastised way Ryuuki had slunk about the halls for that same period of time, Shuuei imagined not even the Emperor's most beloved little brother escaped unscathed.

Kouyuu had managed to not snicker at him in public, at least.

Still, the prince looked so disheartened that Shuuei felt obliged to say something positive. "I'm sure he'll be back soon. Shou Taishi was looking for you earlier, you know."

Ryuuki sat down with a sigh and started running a hand through his tangled hair. Shuuei raised an eyebrow when the younger man shook his head and a petal floated down from his bangs. "I know. I saw him in your office when I was hiding in the garden."

"Hiding?"

Ryuuki had a long-suffering expression on his face. "Senior Secretary Sai."

"Him again?" Shuuei hid his smile behind his sleeve and pushed some tea toward the younger man. No one really _liked_ Senior Secretary Sai—except maybe the officials he brought into the palace through his influence—but the man did his job. However unsavory his repeated attempts to marry his daughter off to Emperor Seien, Prince Ryuuki, and even poor Kouyuu were, it wasn't enough justification to fire the man. "He literally drove you up a tree?"

Ryuuki stuck his tongue out impishly. "He didn't even think of looking up."

"I doubt Shou Taishi would be so careless in the same situation, and your brother would worry if you accidentally fell out," Shuuei commented. "You didn't miss this morning's court session just because you didn't want to see Senior Secretary Sai, did you?"

"It seems pointless to go when aniue's not here." Ryuuki took a sip of his tea and resumed his kicked-puppy expression. It was the very one that had fooled over half of the officials in the court, and was known to even move the immovable Emperor Seien. Shuuei knew better than to fall for it. "Where did aniue go? When will he be back? I know he must've told you before he left."

Ran Shuuei fixed the image of Emperor Seien with his stern anger, and the thought of months and months of boring, repetitive work, firmly in his mind before he answered. "You know he thinks it's better to take care of certain matters in person, Ryuuki." The youngest prince looked even more crestfallen and the General relented enough to give him a gentle pat on the shoulder. It probably wasn't as reassuring as the occasional rubs on the head that Seien gave Ryuuki when he thought no one was watching, but Shuuei smiled when Ryuuki slumped a little less. "Instead of moping about, why don't you show him what a great job you can do in his absence, taking care of things at court? I'm sure it would be a treat for him to come back and find everything's running smoothly."

Oddly enough, the mention of something that would please his brother didn't immediately send Ryuuki into an excited whirlwind of activity. Instead, the effect was the opposite—the youngest prince seemed to wilt and shrink in upon himself.

"Ryuuki?"

Before Shuuei could ask what was wrong, Ryuuki suddenly jumped up, his morose expression turning alarmed. "Shuuei, I am _not here_," the prince hissed as he rounded the desk, and dove under it before Shuuei could form a coherent protest.

"Wha—" As the result of Ryuuki's impromptu takeover of the underside of his desk, Shuuei found himself in an odd half-standing position when Shou Taishi swept into the room. "Shou Taishi!" Shuuei somehow managed to make it look like he meant to be half-standing by finishing the motion. Once straightened, he immediately bowed.

Ryuuki was glaring at him from under the table, mouthing "I'm not here!"

Shuuei resolved to have another talk with Emperor Seien about his little brother, who was more spoiled than rotten meat and completely lacked respect for his elders. For now though, he merely murmured, "Shou Taishi, what can I do for you?"

"General Ran, I came by to drop these off with you," the advisor handed over several scrolls, and when Shuuei opened one, he found it to be a draft of the bill to authorize the budget for the Uringun for the upcoming year. "I am sure Emperor Seien will approach you when he returns—please ask him to review these before final approval." The advisor then gave the two cups of cooling tea on the tray a pointed look before continuing with a wrinkled smile, "Or if you see Ryuuki-sama before that, inform him he may do the review and approval instead."

_Caught_, Shuuei thought, but returned the smile and bowed again as the grand advisor breezed out as quickly as he had breezed in.

"Is he gone?" came the whisper from somewhere in the proximity of his knees.

Shuuei rubbed his temples. "Ryuuki-_sama_." The youngest prince gulped because the general only addressed him so formally when they were in public, or when he was highly irritated. "If you were going to pretend you weren't here, you should have thought about taking the tea with you as well." Before Ryuuki could ply him with his most apologetic look—which not many had been known to withstand unscathed—Shuuei pushed on. "And for future reference, my desk is _not_ to be used as a hiding place."

"I'm sorry…" And now Shuuei found himself faced with The Look. Seien had once described it to him as the one Ryuuki expression that made him feel he was the worst sort of scum ever to have existed in the entire world since the beginning of time. He hadn't believed the Emperor at the time, now he was forced to revise his opinion and conclude that perhaps he had been a bit hasty in finding mirth at his liege's plight.

Ryuuki's lower lip was trembling slightly and Shuuei heaved a sigh as he took a step back. "First, get out of there; you're not staying under my desk to avoid Shou Taishi or Senior Secretary Sai for the rest of the day."

"Are you mad at me?" the prince asked, looking like he was on the verge of bursting out with more apologies if Shuuei chose to answer in the affirmative. Shuuei wisely chose the other option.

"I will not be mad at you if you'll take these—" he handed over the scrolls, "and review them this evening." He held up a hand to forestall Ryuuki's reaction and forced his expression to remain stern. "_And_ you will go apologize to Shou Taishi and promise to attend court every day until your honored brother returns."

As expected, this was not received well.

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"Assistant Secretary Li, what—" the minor official asked after he ran smack into the middle of said Assistant Secretary's back. Li Kouyuu remained frozen in position for moment, and they could start deciphering words from the racket currently coming from General Ran Shuuei's office.

"NOooooooo! I'm NOT GOING!!!!"

"Ryuuki, be reasonable! And let go of that pillar!"

"YOU CAN'T MAKE ME!"

"Er…sir?"

Kouyuu debated. Shuuei always joked about his tendency to be all work and no play, so Emperor Seien's absence hardly counted as the vacation that his 'unfortunate acquaintance' described it as. For Kouyuu, Seien's trips usually precipitated more work. But in addition to keeping the palace staff and officials in line, Emperor Seien also had a calming effect on the people he was around the most often, and that included his little brother and Shuuei.

Neither sounded particularly calm at the moment, and Kouyuu wasn't sure if he was up to dealing with both of them at the same time. But on the other hand, if Seien returned and found out that no one had even tried…

"Assistant Secretary?"

He steeled himself to his fate and turned around. "This far is fine. You said you had something for General Ran?"

The minor official understood from his tone that it was not really a question, and immediately realized the not-so-subtle dismissal as well. In fact the man almost seemed grateful; Kouyuu only wished he were as lucky. The official handed the documents over with a bow and quickly made his exit.

"Kouyuu? Is that you!? Come in here and give me a hand!!" A curse, then, "Ryuuki, are you almost twenty or not?! Don't make me tell your brother on you!"

Li Kouyuu decided that there was no point in dragging matters out and marched into Shuuei's office. After all, what could be worse than that one time with Senior Secretary Sai?

"Kouyuu!"

"Heeeeeeeeelllllp!" Ryuuki wailed.

Kouyuu took in the scene with a glance, and thought that he couldn't wait for Emperor Seien to return and knock some sense into their idiotic heads.

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"Kouyuu…"

His friend pointedly dipped his brush in the ink and then wrote out another line on the pristine white paper. From Shuuei's vantage point it appeared to be a detailed analysis of the department's middle management and the proposed restructuring for the coming year. It was the sort of thing that Shuuei had fond memories of doing when he had been a civil official himself.

"Ignoring me won't work, you know."

To spite him, Kouyuu completed his dissertation on the virtues of delegation as a tool to further the understanding of younger officials learning about their new duties and started on the personnel files for the candidates that would fill the Department of Finance's request for more help.

"Very well." Shuuei heaved a mock sigh and set down two scrolls in front of Kouyuu. "Here's something you'll want to take a look at after you're done with that. We just need your input and the proposal's done."

The brush hovered above the paper for a second, and Shuuei waited for the balance between irritation and curiosity to tip. Then Kouyuu growled, "Don't you have your own work to do?" as he set down his brush and moved the newly completed requisition form to the top right corner of his desk for the few minutes it would take the ink to completely dry. Victory was his when Kouyuu reached for the first scroll and untied the tassel that held it closed.

Shuuei smiled and shrugged. "Getting the budget for the Uringun approved _is_ part of my work," he pointed out. "So it's perfectly reasonable for me to be here."

The adopted son of the Senior Secretary of Civil Affairs was already scanning through the scrolls, expression set in his customary half-glare. Shuuei knew that he was beyond the point of speaking and sat back to wait for him to finish. Shou Taishi and the High Generals had been thorough, of course. His own review was more for the sake of a second opinion, and even though he wasn't sure what Ryuuki did to the contents between the time that he was forced to take the scrolls and the time that they mysteriously reappeared on Shuuei's desk, he was sure that Seien would be fine with any changes.

That left Kouyuu with the final look-over before it was sent back with everyone's stamps of approval, which was a system that worked just as well without Emperor Seien as it did with him. Out of the three, Kouyuu enjoyed the most affirmation from the officials of the court. Ryuuki was talented but young even when compared to Kouyuu and Shuuei, and seemed content to rest in Seien's shadow. Most officials assume his involvement was largely ceremonial, especially since he never did the final approvals. And Shuuei's affiliation with the military and his status as a son of the Ran family meant involvement in administration would cause too many ripples for his liking. Therefore the approval of the youngest candidate to ever place first in the National Exams, the current Assistant Secretary of Civil Affairs and the epitome of 'impregnable logic', Li Kouyuu, was the only one the other officials would accept in Emperor Seien's absence.

"Here," Kouyuu pointed to a section of the scroll that covered the sources for funding, "who wrote that part? I don't remember it in the meeting with the High Generals."

Shuuei peered over. "Hmmm, it certainly wasn't there when I reviewed it. Shou Tashi wrote the initial draft, I believe."

"If this is from Shou Taishi, I'll eat my hat," Kouyuu muttered under his breath. "That stupid Ryuuki, can't he see that this department will be short if we do that? Obviously we'll have to direct the audit toward this piece…" and then his friend was off again in his own little world. Shuuei hid a smile and watched him work.

All the officials in the courts knew that Kouyuu had a mind like a steel trap from which nothing escaped. They knew of his extreme intelligence, his highly esteemed (and feared) adoptive father, and his unmistakably bright future. What they didn't see was Kouyuu's other side: his temper, which was as explosive as it was short, and his mind-bogglingly bad sense of direction. As strange as these quirks were, they were as much a part of him as his brilliance.

Shuuei liked to think that it was some sort of divine karma; a way to even out his genius, just a bit, so that the gods wouldn't take note of him.

"Argh! And who wrote this?!" The previously forgotten brush was dipped into the inkwell with a bit more force than necessary. "Is he planning to take funds from the Department of Civil Affairs?! Prince or not, he'll do it over my dead body!"

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Shuuei found Ryuuki purely by luck, because he had felt that a walk in the garden was long overdue after Kouyuu's half-hour long rant on the idiocy of royal princes and Shou Taishi's amused but barbed praise on a job well done. The budget proposal was as good as approved.

Ryuuki was sitting at the table under a tree exploding with blossoms, the days when its branches were dark skeletons reaching toward the sky no more than a distant memory. There was a cup of tea on the table and a few sheets of paper under an inkwell serving as a paperweight. Ryuuki was balling up a few more sheets in evident frustration.

"Writing love letters?"

"UWAH!" Ryuuki almost lost his seat, and Shuuei couldn't help but laugh. "Shuuei! Wha—where'd you come from!?"

"I was not aware that this is a private garden," Shuuei replied archly. "If you wanted to be alone, you should have gone to your own garden."

"…ah." Ryuuki said, a bit sheepishly. "Er…I'm sorry about what happened a couple days ago."

The budget's passage made Shuuei feel rather magnanimous about the whole affair—more so than he had at the time, anyway. "I suppose I'll let you off with just doing your work and apologizing to Shou Taishi," he agreed as he sat down.

"So, Kouyuu was fine with the changes?"

Recalling his friend's rant, Shuuei winced. "He wasn't fine with all of them, no."

"…oh, really?" There was something odd about the curious, almost forcibly nonchalant tone in Ryuuki's voice. "What did he have trouble with?"

"The funding, mostly—he very firmly disapproved of your allocation methods," Shuuei said tactfully, not wanting to hurt the prince's feelings.

"So how did he fix it?" Ryuuki asked. "Did he say?"

Shuuei paused before answering, a sudden suspicion hitting him smack between the eyes. _It's impossible, but…_ "I think he might've mentioned Finance somewhere—"

"Huh? But it's supposed to be Public Works—" the youngest prince made a small 'eep' when Shuuei's gaze sharpened on him. "I mean—that is—if he thought Finance, then Finance is fine…"

Shuuei folded his hands in his sleeves so he could better resist the urge to reach out and strangle Ryuuki. "I was going to say he mentioned that we cannot cut from Finance any more, since they're one of the most efficient departments already. In fact, he did say that Public Works should be the one to target."

Like an animal sensing danger, Ryuuki was trying to edge away. Shuuei smiled in warning and the prince stopped moving. "Er…that's…good?"

"Ryuuki-_sama_," Shuuei reminded himself that Seien was going to _kill_ him if he even laid a finger on his precious little brother, no matter how much that precious little brother deserved to be turned over his knee and given a good spanking, "please don't tell me that you wrote in those pieces in the budget that were, and I quote, 'inspired but completely without any deep thought whatsoever and therefore ultimately totally stupid beyond belief,' _ON PURPOSE_?"

"I—I don't know what you're talking about!" Ryuuki yelped. "It's just a coincidence!"

Since spanking was out of the question, Shuuei tried to be reasonable. "Ryuuki, give it up, you can't tell a convincing lie to save your life."

"Who-who says I'm lying!"

Shuuei gave him a pointed look. "You stutter, and your face turns red." At that, Ryuuki's face turned even redder. "See?"

"…I'm not talking to you anymore!" and with that, the youngest prince stood up and stormed off, the air of offended dignity nearly palpable around him—rather like that of a wet cat, Shuuei thought in amusement.

"Just like a kid," he murmured to himself. A gentle breeze stirred his robes, and the flutter of a page caught his eye. Curious, Shuuei caught the wadded up balls of paper that Ryuuki had abandoned on the table before the wind could take them.

The first one he smoothed open must have been the last one that Ryuuki had crumpled up, because the sheet was only half filled and the words were smudged. The prince hadn't waited for the ink to dry completely before he abandoned it. Shuuei glanced at the still-readable portions of Ryuuki's flowing script.

He paused, then moved to unfurl the rest of the documents with a frown.

After he read through their contents, the general carefully folded them up and tucked the papers into his sleeve. As much as it went against his inclinations, it was time to pay a visit to Shou Taishi.

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"This is troubling."

"This would never have happened if His Majesty was here." The grizzled old man in dark blue took a sip of his tea and all three looked at the wrinkled sheets of paper spread on the table in front of them. "General Ran said that the Emperor did not give a return date."

"If he is going all the way out to Kou province, then we would not expect him back for another few months at the very least," the old man in brown said, stroking his beard, his wrinkles moving in a frown. "This will have to be resolved before then, without the Emperor's help."

"And to think he's been doing this under our noses," the last murmured with a hint of amusement in his tone. "Truly, Prince Ryuuki deserves the title of 'genius' as much as he deserves the one of 'fool'."

"This is no time to praise him, Shou," Sa Taiho held up one of the papers. The first draft, despite its childish doodles and scribbled notes in the margins, had been verified and acknowledged as nothing short of brilliant. The same could not be said for subsequent drafts. "This is utter foolishness. To think that Prince Ryuuki has been sabotaging his own work in order to appear stupid…"

"'A capable falcon hides his talons'…huh." Sou set his cup down. He had no interest in the contents of the papers, only that the initial drafts had been edited to include mistakes and errors, instead of the other way around. "He was only caught this time by a fortunate accident. Even if we were to bring it up, I doubt he would just quietly stop."

"To let this continue would be a waste of his talents and detrimental to the country."

Shou took a sip of his tea and smiled, almost cat-like. The two other venerable advisors exchanged a glance at the familiar expression.

"Please leave the matter of Prince Ryuuki to me," he said. "I have a plan."

End


End file.
